#cullen is a case study on indoctrination and propaganda

[boise-douglas]

The people who are replying with so much Cullen hate fundamentally don’t understand his character. Cullen is introduced in the same game that Alistair is, I doubt they were trying to make an Alistair 2.0 when they already had one.

But from the first interaction with Cullen at the circle in Fereldan, Alistair specifically says ‘oh poor guy, he is hatred of mages has overtaken him.’ It’s a direct acknowledgment that they are different, that Cullen has gone through different circumstances than Alistair and responded differently. Alisitair is a product of neglect and abuse, Cullen is a product of propaganda and fear mongering and addiction.

Cullen had a great childhood and grew up surrounded by templars who seemed like valiant heroes in their shiny armors. (The wording in this post makes it sound like he was abusive towards his older sister when they actually have a great relationship.) Obviously a young boy with nothing to his name would want to aspire to be like them. Imagine you grew up poor and were surrounded by soldiers in dress uniform who regaled stories of heroics to you all day. You’d want to be like them too. He steadfastly wants to be a Templar, throughout all the horrors of it, because it’s what’s been fed to him as a glorious profession. He hasn’t traveled or been around mages enough to understand the abusive dynamics at play here yet.

Also, he doesn’t just hate the mages out of nowhere. He has a pretty traumatic experience at the circle in fereldan with the desire and sloth demons. He’s the last of his group to remain sane and is trapped in a prison being mentally tortured for what is probably days in the game. How could that not manifest into resentment.

He then is sent to Kirkwall, away from family members or any support system besides the templars and the chantry, where he is directly under a fanatic. Yes he follows her willingly, because what else would he reasonably do? I’m not excusing his actions by any means, I’m just saying that someone who is so heavily indoctrinated, so heavily scared and resentful of mages, and so utterly alone would not realistically say “let me remove myself emotionally from this and look critically at the situation.”

As for the retcon point, no you can’t really condemn cullen because he admits he was wrong. He feels extreme guilt towards it. If you console him and say it was alright, he forcibly says no, it wasn’t alright. I killed innocent people and followed a lunatic. The other games he simply is not a companion like Alistair is, so you can’t get on him as intimately as you can Alistair. Not to say Inquisition is particularly good at allowing disagreements with people (especially as a dalish elf hoo boy).

The example the OP used for dialogue is also not a good example. Imagine someone saying “Oh you were in a prison once, right?” and you respond “Yes and I bet you wish I was still locked up there too huh” like what?? You can’t confront Cullen about his past directly yet (an oversight for inquisition for sure) but you’re obviously not really trying to argue with him or confront him now, the dialogue option is pretty cut and dry ‘asshole’ response. Cullen doesn’t directly respond to what you say because who would? He just says “I’m sorry, it was a bad choice of conversation.” All the other normal dialogue options he expresses that it must have been hard to live there or that it must be refreshing to be somewhere else.

Also, Cullen is undergoing withdrawal from lyrium and trying to command the inquisition without falling to lyrium madness. He’s not funny because the guy is in agony (though he is pretty funny if he walks in on you and Iron Bull, and obviously has some sense of humor if he hangs out with Dorian). And as a separate point, you can’t fault the guy for being devote to his faith. He believes as strongly as Lelianna or Cassandra, but as a soldier he didn’t have the same perception of the chantry as they did.

Lastly, I feel like inquisition tried to show that Cullen has progressed and grown past his mindset in multiple ways. He plays chess with Dorian and if you romance him as a mage you can have multiple conversations about his thoughts on your magic. They don’t ignore his old mindset (in the beginning at haven he talks about the mages there and that he has been keeping a close eye on them and he doesn’t trust them), but they do let him move on from his past. It’s a realistic portrayal of how someone responds to years of propaganda and trauma.

Alistair vs. Cullen

It really annoys me when people act like Alistair and Cullen are the same character, when they are very different.

Alistair grew up with child neglect. When visiting Denerim, Eamon kept him in the kennels. At Redcliffe, he slept in the stables on a pile of hay. Alistair also recounts a time when he was locked in the dungeons for a day before someone came to get him out. And of course he also talks about how Isolde despised him, and “made sure the castle wasn't a home.” But is still convinced that Eamon is a good person and he deserved all that. Cullen had a very fortunate upbringing with a loving family who supported him and what he wanted in life.

Alistair never wanted to be a Templar; he was forced into joining the Order by Eamon. He is vocal about how much he despised this, and considers Duncan recruiting him for the Wardens as “saving” him from them. The only thing he says he enjoyed about Templar training was the educational component, which he did not receive previously. Alistair was a poor recruit because he frankly did not want to be there, and therefore did not take it very seriously. He saw practices like the Harrowing as horrifying, and deepened his dislike of being a Templar further. And as time goes on, he becomes even less of a supporter of the Order; he outright says Meredith is the biggest threat to Kirkwall in Dragon Age II, if made king of Ferelden. It was always Cullen’s dream to be a Templar, and would even force his younger sister to “play the apostate” for his “training” before being recruited. Cullen was an enthusiastic recruit who considered Templar training “all that he had imagined”, and “did not hesitate” in taking his vows. Even the Harrowing did not waver his devotion to the Order, which by Dragon Age II becomes downright fanatical and tyrannical, practically worshipping Meredith. (Though this was later attempted to be retconned in Dragon Age: Inquisition… just as poorly as all the other retcons in that game, taking the path of “just pretend he never said and did all those things!”)

There is a lot of dialogue from Alistair about how much he dislikes the Chantry. Cullen, on the other hand, is extremely faithful and the only criticism he ever has about the Chantry is that they don’t treat the Templars well enough.

Alistair has a good sense of humour—in fact, it’s one of his biggest coping mechanisms. Cullen wouldn’t know a joke if it hit him in the face.

The player can disagree with Alistair on every turn. He is presented as sometimes being right, and sometimes being wrong, like most people. (Side note: more than that, you can be downright verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive to Alistair. Holy shit, I didn’t even realize how bad it can get until reading through the dialogue in the toolset, because I’ve never picked those options in game. I was honest to god flabbergasted and very uncomfortable through much of it.) The player rarely has the chance to even mildly disagree with Cullen. On the rare occasion you do, the dialogue is painted as if the player is being an unreasonable asshole, and he never even addresses what they say. (Example.)

The only reason I think people are capable of mistaking them for another is because fandom likes to donate Alistair’s personality onto Cullen. That and the the ever-frequent whitewashing of Alistair doesn’t help matters. But I’m not even a Cullen fan and I think it’s a disservice to both of them to act like they’re just Alistair and Alistair 2.0, honestly.